Sunday, June 29, 2008

We rounded up some fun this weekend!
This weekend we had our party to celebrate Eileen turning 6 and Olivia turning 4, the theme this year was a cowgirl/boy party. We had cowgirl grub for lunch, and then for dessert we made a horseshoe cake that Bryan and the girls decorated but some how we didn't get a picture of it!! We also had angel food cake with strawberries that Eileen and I picked on Wednesday with homemade whipped cream and/or ice cream! The girls and I also made frozen smores but I didn't get to try one so I don't know if they were any good or not (if you had one let me know if they are worth making again). We planned some games but we really only got around to one and then the storm came through and we were all forced inside (but only for about 30-40 min.). It is a good thing we went in when we did though, the neighbors had a tree go down and it took down the power line to their house!!! After the storm it was beautiful out again, so some people played baseball (thank your Uncle Carl, Auntie Krista, Brenden and Nathan) with Eileen and Olivia's new baseball equipment. Olivia and her friend Kelsie stayed inside and played with the packing peanuts and Olivia's new cooking tools from Nana and Papa-they made quite a mess making their "popcorn". What a fun day we had, thank you everyone for coming!
Missy, Auntie Lori and Uncle Jamie
Cherub, Brenden, and Olivia "panning" for "gold", ie. digging in the sand for change
Time to wash out the pan and see if she got any loot in her pan!
The adults waited while the kids were panning
Uncle Carl and Eileen
Eileen opening her gifts
Olivia trying to reach the one on top
Eileen showing off her new shades
Look what Grandpa picked out for us!
Cowgirl Eileen
Cowgirl Olivia
Joseph taking his buddy Owen to the play room to find some more toys to throw
Auntie Krista playing catcher for Nathan
My cowgirls and Joseph after the party

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Happy Birthday Dear Eileen and Olivia!!!!
I can not believe that the girls are another year older today, 6 and 4!! When the girls got up this morning they got to open their cards from Great Papa and they each had a new outfit waiting for them. Once everyone was up, fed, dressed, and had a nice coat of sunblock and bug replant on we were off to the park! After the park we were off to StoneFire Pizza for lunch and a few hours of play. The kids once again had so much fun! The climber, the giant legos, the play pizza parlor, face paint, trains, the water table, and of course all the food! When we got home the plan was to nap, but that didn't really happen so Joseph took a nap and the girls played in the little pool in the yard. Once Joseph woke up we were on to gifts, the girls were so excited and thrilled with all they got. I think they were really surprised and happy with their gifts this year. We had two little cakes for tonight since we will have a big one on Saturday and by then I am sure we will be all caked out! It has been another wonderful year with the girls and this will be a big one for them both at the same school.
Olivia reading her card from Great-Papa, she thought the kitty cat on the card was soooo cute!
Eileen reading her name on the card from Great Papa
The girls showing off their new birthday outfits
All three kids on the swings at the park
Joseph playing with the trains at StoneFire
Olivia in the water room
Eileen looking down on us from the top of the climber
Olivia serving Daddy up some pizza
Eileen and Olivia showing off their face (and arm) paint
Joseph taking a break for a little drink
The Birthday Girls sitting together at the bottom of the slide
Eileen opening her Ariel doll from Joseph, she knew Olivia was getting one but for some reason had no idea one was coming for her! She also didn't know they made an Ariel doll like this.
Joseph handing Olivia her gift, it was a bit hard for him to understand why he wasn't getting any gifts...someday he will
Olivia showing off her new Kaya outfit
The girls with their new crystal
Eileen and Olivia each got a hair kit for their American Girl dolls, so after the gifts were opened they each got right to work on getting their doll in their new outfit and fixing their hair. This is Olivia working on Kaya.
And Eileen with Samantha
On to the cake, Eileen with her 6 candles
and Olivia with her 4
Eileen blowing out her candles, with Ariel watching of course.
Olivia (and Snow White) blowing out her candles
Eileen enjoying her cake
Olivia only ate the frosting off her cake, oh well that's what birthdays are for right!
Joseph couldn't wait for cake time! The poor boy, those mosquitoes love him-those are bites all over his head!!!

Monday, June 23, 2008

Jonathan and Sigan are residents of Madison, WI
The first weekend of June Jonathan and Sigan (plus 1) moved back to Madison, and Jonathan back to the old zip-code, hello Parkwood. The kids and I went in, not so much to help with the move as to offer lunch and visit. They are doing well and have settled into their new apartment. While they were working hard the rest of us made a trip to the famous Madison Farmers Market.
Brian was nice enough to push Joseph the whole time (this can be more challenging than one would think with the crowds), in the stroller we borrowed from Kelly.
Mom and Benjamin leading the group with Olivia close behind.
The kids first trip to the capitol, the girls thought it was beautiful inside.

BAD NEWS!!! We have had a lot of fun the past few weeks, last day of school, Moms award, Cherubs birthday, fathers day, a friends birthday, fun in the sprinkler on the first day of summer and Eileen's first friend party- unfortunately my camera has been a pain in the rear and "recorded" rather than taking a picture, so all of the pictures from these days are funky (kind of like a film strip-a series of still images).

Eileen had her last day of school on June 10th. She had a great year and was very sad to have a last day.
On Friday June 13th Mom won the "Unsung hero" award at her work, the entire staff vote and only two are awarded a year. The kids and I came in, Jonathan and Sigan were there, as well as Dad and Brian to surprise her as she was recognized by her colleagues. That night we went to Brian and Kelly's to celebrate Cherub's 12th birthday with a cookout. The next day we were back in Milwaukee for another birthday. On Sunday we hosted Father's Day at our house with the Toccos. We cooked out and the guys played croquet while the rest of us visited.
The kids and I spent the week getting ready for Eileen's first friend party. She invited the little girls in her class for an afternoon tea party. She was so excited to have her friends over and no mom's stay! The girls were great, we did a few crafts, ate some lunch, sipped some tea (all the girls picked the pink lemonade over the raspberry iced tea), opened gifts, ate some cake, drank some more pink lemonade, played on the playset, and went home-it was a busy 2 hours!
GOOD NEWS!!! Halfway through pictures we got the camera working right again!!
We had the party on the newly re-finished sun porch, rather than have everyone come through the house Bryan directed everyone directly to the back yard (you can see the walk way below, Joseph is running on it.)
The girls working on decorating their sun hats
We took this picture and all of the girls made a picture frame and took home this picture in the frame they made.
Eileen opening her gifts
Eileen waiting to blow out her candles
The girls were so cute just chatting while they ate and drank, but they did take the crafts very seriously.
Joseph and Bryan did their best to keep to themselves while all the girls were here.
Joseph got a bit of time on the playset before all the girls came out and took over.

We are getting ready for the Birthdays to continue!!! Bryan is home this week to celebrate the girls birthday on Thursday and then the Hoe-Down at the Tocco Corral this weekend, lets hope the camera can keep up with us!

Friday, June 06, 2008

Here we go again!
OK, so we will try this again! I wanted to update "spring" now that summer is almost here (in my defence it really hasn't felt much like summer but for a few days here and there.). I will make this as quick as possible (for one thing I am working against the sound of the keys clicking-the kids are still sleeping and Olivia is going to get up at any moment, it's like a horror movie waiting for it to come!).

Krispy Kreme Tour

So, Olivia, Joseph and I got to go on a tour of Krispy Kreme with our MOMS group-that has to be one of the stickiest places on the the face of the earth!, but the kids had a great time and loved sampling everything!
The guy giving the tour was very nice and used language like "the doughnuts are taking a bath in the glaze.", I am sorry but that imagery was just very upsetting to me-yuck!
Olivia and Joseph waiting for the doughnuts to come...I am sure it felt like the longest wait ever!
Olivia showing off her new hat, Joseph didn't want to wear his.

Grandparents Day at Shady Lane
Every spring Shady Lane Elementary School celebrates Grandparents day and from what I hear it is a pretty big deal...they have a little breakfast for the grandparents and then the kids put on a show, then they all go back to the classroom to show off their work and room, the kids get to take their grandparent on a tour of the school...I'm not quite sure what else since I wasn't' there, but Grandma and Grandpa were!
We all walked Eileen to school since Olivia was having a hard time letting Grandma and Grandpa go with just Eileen.
Eileen with Grandma and Grandpa outside school
Eileen reading some of her work to Grandma
Eileen on the stairs to the loft with her teacher Ms. Hoynacki

Since we felt bad for Olivia and Joseph that they didn't get to really see Grandma and Grandpa we took them out for gelato at one of our favorite local food joints, John Harbor's

When we got back to the house it was pouring out, so I ran over to school with an umbrella for Butch and Michele and ended up taking Eileen with me too (she really didn't want to be there without Grandma and Grandpa, and hey-they are the ones who called it Grandparents Day not Grandparents morning, right?). After Eileen changed (she got soaked from the rain) we all went out for lunch at Uno's, no pictures but really good food.

Mother's Day
We had a nice Mother's day this year, Mom and Dad came in and Bryan made us all an awesome brunch! We went for a little walk since it was kind of wet and rainy.
Eileen gave me a card and a picture she made at school, as well as 2 of her June B. Jones books and an information card about Samantha.
Olivia made me a very cute hand print bouquet and a very nice card.
Joseph (it was really from everyone) gave me the greatest coffee mug ever! It has a button to push that keeps the coffee from spilling-I LOVE it! I also got the Top Chef cookbook (lots of fun to look at but I haven't made anything from there yet) and an ice cream/frozen yogurt maker-lot of fun!

Joseph's first haircut (it lasted 2 days)
Since Bryan was tired of his son waking up looking like this, he decided that it was time for a hair cut!
Getting ready!
Bryan getting right in there with the clippers, Joseph sat so well! He was such a trooper, I (and Eileen) on the other hand ended up in tears.
The haircut didn't come out quite like we wanted so I was sad and Bryan was mad.
We just went and got it fixed the next day, I think we might become known as the "repair" family since this is the same place we went for Olivia's self given mullet! (Don't mind the peanut butter on Joseph's face, he was very hungry by the time we got home).

Getting Out!
Nana and Papa came in over Memorial Day weekend to watch the kids so Bryan and I could go to his cousin's wedding, we didn't get a picture of Bryan and I but I did get a nice one of Bryan and Butch.

Olivia's Last Day of Pre-School
Olivia had her last day of pre-school yesterday, she has grown so much this past year and her teacher has been wonderful-we are really going to miss her.
Olivia and Ms. Tanya
One of the kids in the class brought everyone snack in a special cup that they get to keep
Of course we had to celebrate Olivia's last day with some gelato, once again at our favorite spot!

I really will try to be better this summer, we will see! Thanks for your patience!